Tags

, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

My full day in Vienna was quite lovely! It had been quite warm (73 is hot for me) the day before but today was beautiful weather; perfect for shorts and a sweatshirt! Breakfast at the hotel was rather nice, we had our choice of breads, cereals, yogurts, meats& cheeses in addition to fruit, eggs and tomato if we wished from the kitchen. My favorite was the little slice of cake that I got, some sort of marble cake.

 After our breakfast our first order of business was to walk to St Stephen’s Cathedral and then wander from there. On our way found Vienna’s Hard Rock Cafe! The cathedral was beautiful, the architecture was clearly gothic with some understated yet pleasant stained glass windows inside. My favorite part of the church was probably the staircase for the priest to preach from–I’m a huge fan of winding staircases–no matter how long or short they are! The next structure that I really appreciated inside was the organ and its pipe, it was pretty awesome to see!

  
  
Next we meandered down the street and came across St Peter’s church. Shortly after which we found a pretty cool statue depicting the creation (I believe). From here while we were on our way to the Leopoldo Museum we passed the Sacher Hotel which Pipa recommended for Sacher Torte! Here we also came across the Albertina museum, the price seemed a little expensive having been spoiled so in London that I chose not to go in but rather to peruse the gift shop. Turns out they had some pretty cool stuff; I got a few magnets and a Monet to Picasso book which I’m pretty pumped to delve into later!

  
 From the Albertina gift store we began our walk to the Leopoldo museum and the Museum Quartier Wien. On said was we can across a beautiful black Mazerati and a cool park. The park had a Franz Josef statue as well as a Mozart statue with flowers shaped like a treble sign which I quite enjoyed. The park itself was rather beautiful, it at one point had been a private park modeled after the English style parks.

  
  
The Leopold museum was rather impressive in size. We started out on the 4th floor which was almost entirely dedicated to Klimt who I’d never before heard of. Some of his works were rather interesting, I particularly liked On Lake Attersee it reminded me very much of Monet. I also enjoyed his Death and Life painting very much so. His works were rather morose for the most part which was also the theme of the next artist we focused on. Also on this floor was a replication of Klimt’s studio from a picture taken. Plus some awesome views over the Museum Quartier towards the modern art museum!

On Lake Attersee by Klimt


 Schiele was the next floor down, I didn’t connect much to his paintings although reading the history of his life was pretty fascinating. He and Klimt were pretty close and it only made sense that their art was more similar than not in some ways. I wasn’t particularly moved by any of his paintings but I did appreciate his Stylized Flowers in Front of Decorative Background it was rather pretty and I appreciated it. I was also interested to read about how he felt most comfortable in the Czech Republic where his mother was from, having just been there it was fun to discover that fact about Schiele! We also saw some really interesting furniture on this floor; designer of course and rather interesting sets if you ask me!

  
The next painting I enjoyed was Böhler’s Miss List it again reminded me of Monet; get the theme here? From here we left to go get ourselves some Sacher Torte and coffee. We made our way back to the Sacher Hotel. There we ordered the torte, an apple strudel and my grandma a cafe au lait and myself a delicious Schokoccino! The torte was my favorite and I really enjoyed my coffee drink as well even without being a huge coffee fan. From our snack we then dawdled off to the Jewish Museum of Vienna not too far away. We also happened to pass a fountain, two chocolate shops and a cute puppy!

  
     
The Jewish museum was rather enlightening. I hadn’t realized how far back the different enactments of persecution went. It was protested that while in favor Jewish people were allowed to be in the city but at various times they were kicked out as they had lost favor with the ruling class of the time. There were also various religious artifacts which were really quite interesting. I admit I don’t know much about Jewish culture, religion in particular so seeing these was pretty cool. The top floor was filled with various artifacts that had been collected and catalogued in order to preserve as much history as possible as I understood it. We didn’t have enough time sadly but we did see the majority of the museum without rushing through.

  
On the way back from the museum we decided to stop at the chocolate shops we passed for some goodies–my weakness. After that though we began our walk back to the hotel with the idea of stopping for dinner when something struck our fancy! As it were, we happened upon the Votive church and its repair work! We also found a restaurant on this street where we decided looked to be a good chow spot. Turns out we were right, a little pricy for my student budget were I alone but it wasn’t so expensive that we didn’t decide not to go there! The food was fantastic! I ordered the fettuccine and my grandma the chicken salad. For dessert we split the Creme Brûlée and each of us had a wine with dinner, my grandma Rosé and myself a Riesling. During the walk there we also came across another nice car, this time a nice silver mustang. And that walk back ended our lovely day in Vienna. Until tomorrow!


  
  
PS: I thought it appropriate to listen to classical music while writing this, it definitely fit the mood!